How to change fontFamily of TextView in Android

Question

So I'd like to change the android:fontFamily in Android but I don't see any pre-defined fonts in Android. How do I select one of the pre-defined ones? I don't really need to define my own TypeFace but all I need is something different from what it shows right now.

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/HeaderText"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
    android:layout_marginTop="52dp"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="CallerBlocker"
    android:textSize="40dp"
    android:fontFamily="Arial"
 />

It seems what I did up there won't really work! BTW android:fontFamily="Arial" was a stupid attempt!

Solution 1

From android 4.1 / 4.2 / 5.0, the following Roboto font families are available:

android:fontFamily="sans-serif"           // roboto regular
android:fontFamily="sans-serif-light"     // roboto light
android:fontFamily="sans-serif-condensed" // roboto condensed
android:fontFamily="sans-serif-black"     // roboto black
android:fontFamily="sans-serif-thin"      // roboto thin (android 4.2)
android:fontFamily="sans-serif-medium"    // roboto medium (android 5.0)

in combination with

android:textStyle="normal|bold|italic"

this 16 variants are possible:

• Roboto regular
• Roboto italic
• Roboto bold
• Roboto bold italic
• Roboto-Light
• Roboto-Light italic
• Roboto-Thin
• Roboto-Thin italic
• Roboto-Condensed
• Roboto-Condensed italic
• Roboto-Condensed bold
• Roboto-Condensed bold italic
• Roboto-Black
• Roboto-Black italic
• Roboto-Medium
• Roboto-Medium italic

fonts.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string name="font_family_light">sans-serif-light</string>
    <string name="font_family_medium">sans-serif-medium</string>
    <string name="font_family_regular">sans-serif</string>
    <string name="font_family_condensed">sans-serif-condensed</string>
    <string name="font_family_black">sans-serif-black</string>
    <string name="font_family_thin">sans-serif-thin</string>
</resources>

Solution 2

Starting from Android-Studio 3.0 its very easy to change font family

Using support library 26, it will work on devices running Android API version 16 and higher

Create a folder font under res directory .Download the font which ever you want and paste it inside font folder. The structure should be some thing like below

Note: As of Android Support Library 26.0, you must declare both sets of attributes ( android: and app: ) to ensure your fonts load on devices running Api 26 or lower.

Now you can change font in layout using

<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:fontFamily="@font/dancing_script"
app:fontFamily="@font/dancing_script"/>

To change Programatically

 Typeface typeface = getResources().getFont(R.font.myfont);
   //or to support all versions use
Typeface typeface = ResourcesCompat.getFont(context, R.font.myfont);
 textView.setTypeface(typeface);  

To change font using styles.xml create a style

 <style name="Regular">
        <item name="android:fontFamily">@font/dancing_script</item>
        <item name="fontFamily">@font/dancing_script</item>
        <item name="android:textStyle">normal</item>
 </style>

and apply this style to TextView

  <TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    style="@style/Regular"/>

you can also Create your own font family

- Right-click the font folder and go to New > Font resource file. The New Resource File window appears.

- Enter the file name, and then click OK. The new font resource XML opens in the editor.

Write your own font family here , for example

<font-family xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <font
        android:fontStyle="normal"
        android:fontWeight="400"
        android:font="@font/lobster_regular" />
    <font
        android:fontStyle="italic"
        android:fontWeight="400"
        android:font="@font/lobster_italic" />
</font-family>

this is simply a mapping of a specific fontStyle and fontWeight to the font resource which will be used to render that specific variant. Valid values for fontStyle are normal or italic; and fontWeight conforms to the CSS font-weight specification

1. To change fontfamily in layout you can write

 <TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:fontFamily="@font/lobster"/>

2. To Change Programmatically

 Typeface typeface = getResources().getFont(R.font.lobster);
   //or to support all versions use
Typeface typeface = ResourcesCompat.getFont(context, R.font.lobster);
 textView.setTypeface(typeface);  

To change font of entire App Add these two lines in AppTheme

 <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
     <item name="android:fontFamily">@font/your_font</item>
     <item name="fontFamily">@font/your_font</item>
  </style>

See the Documentation , Android Custom Fonts Tutorial For more info

Solution 3

This is the way to set the font programmatically:

TextView tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.appname);
Typeface face = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),
            "fonts/epimodem.ttf");
tv.setTypeface(face);

put the font file in your assets folder. In my case I created a subdirectory called fonts.

EDIT: If you wonder where is your assets folder see this question

Solution 4

I had to parse /system/etc/fonts.xml in a recent project. Here are the current font families as of Lollipop:

╔════╦════════════════════════════╦═════════════════════════════╗
║    ║ FONT FAMILY                ║ TTF FILE                    ║
╠════╬════════════════════════════╬═════════════════════════════╣
║  1 ║ casual                     ║ ComingSoon.ttf              ║
║  2 ║ cursive                    ║ DancingScript-Regular.ttf   ║
║  3 ║ monospace                  ║ DroidSansMono.ttf           ║
║  4 ║ sans-serif                 ║ Roboto-Regular.ttf          ║
║  5 ║ sans-serif-black           ║ Roboto-Black.ttf            ║
║  6 ║ sans-serif-condensed       ║ RobotoCondensed-Regular.ttf ║
║  7 ║ sans-serif-condensed-light ║ RobotoCondensed-Light.ttf   ║
║  8 ║ sans-serif-light           ║ Roboto-Light.ttf            ║
║  9 ║ sans-serif-medium          ║ Roboto-Medium.ttf           ║
║ 10 ║ sans-serif-smallcaps       ║ CarroisGothicSC-Regular.ttf ║
║ 11 ║ sans-serif-thin            ║ Roboto-Thin.ttf             ║
║ 12 ║ serif                      ║ NotoSerif-Regular.ttf       ║
║ 13 ║ serif-monospace            ║ CutiveMono.ttf              ║
╚════╩════════════════════════════╩═════════════════════════════╝

---

Here is the parser (based off FontListParser):

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.List;

import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParser;
import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserException;

import android.util.Xml;

/**
 * Helper class to get the current font families on an Android device.</p>
 * 
 * Usage:</p> {@code List<SystemFont> fonts = FontListParser.safelyGetSystemFonts();}</p>
 */
public final class FontListParser {

    private static final File FONTS_XML = new File("/system/etc/fonts.xml");

    private static final File SYSTEM_FONTS_XML = new File("/system/etc/system_fonts.xml");

    public static List<SystemFont> getSystemFonts() throws Exception {
        String fontsXml;
        if (FONTS_XML.exists()) {
            fontsXml = FONTS_XML.getAbsolutePath();
        } else if (SYSTEM_FONTS_XML.exists()) {
            fontsXml = SYSTEM_FONTS_XML.getAbsolutePath();
        } else {
            throw new RuntimeException("fonts.xml does not exist on this system");
        }
        Config parser = parse(new FileInputStream(fontsXml));
        List<SystemFont> fonts = new ArrayList<>();

        for (Family family : parser.families) {
            if (family.name != null) {
                Font font = null;
                for (Font f : family.fonts) {
                    font = f;
                    if (f.weight == 400) {
                        break;
                    }
                }
                SystemFont systemFont = new SystemFont(family.name, font.fontName);
                if (fonts.contains(systemFont)) {
                    continue;
                }
                fonts.add(new SystemFont(family.name, font.fontName));
            }
        }

        for (Alias alias : parser.aliases) {
            if (alias.name == null || alias.toName == null || alias.weight == 0) {
                continue;
            }
            for (Family family : parser.families) {
                if (family.name == null || !family.name.equals(alias.toName)) {
                    continue;
                }
                for (Font font : family.fonts) {
                    if (font.weight == alias.weight) {
                        fonts.add(new SystemFont(alias.name, font.fontName));
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        if (fonts.isEmpty()) {
            throw new Exception("No system fonts found.");
        }

        Collections.sort(fonts, new Comparator<SystemFont>() {

            @Override
            public int compare(SystemFont font1, SystemFont font2) {
                return font1.name.compareToIgnoreCase(font2.name);
            }

        });

        return fonts;
    }

    public static List<SystemFont> safelyGetSystemFonts() {
        try {
            return getSystemFonts();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            String[][] defaultSystemFonts = {
                    {
                            "cursive", "DancingScript-Regular.ttf"
                    }, {
                            "monospace", "DroidSansMono.ttf"
                    }, {
                            "sans-serif", "Roboto-Regular.ttf"
                    }, {
                            "sans-serif-light", "Roboto-Light.ttf"
                    }, {
                            "sans-serif-medium", "Roboto-Medium.ttf"
                    }, {
                            "sans-serif-black", "Roboto-Black.ttf"
                    }, {
                            "sans-serif-condensed", "RobotoCondensed-Regular.ttf"
                    }, {
                            "sans-serif-thin", "Roboto-Thin.ttf"
                    }, {
                            "serif", "NotoSerif-Regular.ttf"
                    }
            };
            List<SystemFont> fonts = new ArrayList<>();
            for (String[] names : defaultSystemFonts) {
                File file = new File("/system/fonts", names[1]);
                if (file.exists()) {
                    fonts.add(new SystemFont(names[0], file.getAbsolutePath()));
                }
            }
            return fonts;
        }
    }

    /* Parse fallback list (no names) */
    public static Config parse(InputStream in) throws XmlPullParserException, IOException {
        try {
            XmlPullParser parser = Xml.newPullParser();
            parser.setInput(in, null);
            parser.nextTag();
            return readFamilies(parser);
        } finally {
            in.close();
        }
    }

    private static Alias readAlias(XmlPullParser parser) throws XmlPullParserException, IOException {
        Alias alias = new Alias();
        alias.name = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "name");
        alias.toName = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "to");
        String weightStr = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "weight");
        if (weightStr == null) {
            alias.weight = 0;
        } else {
            alias.weight = Integer.parseInt(weightStr);
        }
        skip(parser); // alias tag is empty, ignore any contents and consume end tag
        return alias;
    }

    private static Config readFamilies(XmlPullParser parser) throws XmlPullParserException,
            IOException {
        Config config = new Config();
        parser.require(XmlPullParser.START_TAG, null, "familyset");
        while (parser.next() != XmlPullParser.END_TAG) {
            if (parser.getEventType() != XmlPullParser.START_TAG) {
                continue;
            }
            if (parser.getName().equals("family")) {
                config.families.add(readFamily(parser));
            } else if (parser.getName().equals("alias")) {
                config.aliases.add(readAlias(parser));
            } else {
                skip(parser);
            }
        }
        return config;
    }

    private static Family readFamily(XmlPullParser parser) throws XmlPullParserException,
            IOException {
        String name = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "name");
        String lang = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "lang");
        String variant = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "variant");
        List<Font> fonts = new ArrayList<Font>();
        while (parser.next() != XmlPullParser.END_TAG) {
            if (parser.getEventType() != XmlPullParser.START_TAG) {
                continue;
            }
            String tag = parser.getName();
            if (tag.equals("font")) {
                String weightStr = parser.getAttributeValue(null, "weight");
                int weight = weightStr == null ? 400 : Integer.parseInt(weightStr);
                boolean isItalic = "italic".equals(parser.getAttributeValue(null, "style"));
                String filename = parser.nextText();
                String fullFilename = "/system/fonts/" + filename;
                fonts.add(new Font(fullFilename, weight, isItalic));
            } else {
                skip(parser);
            }
        }
        return new Family(name, fonts, lang, variant);
    }

    private static void skip(XmlPullParser parser) throws XmlPullParserException, IOException {
        int depth = 1;
        while (depth > 0) {
            switch (parser.next()) {
            case XmlPullParser.START_TAG:
                depth++;
                break;
            case XmlPullParser.END_TAG:
                depth--;
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    private FontListParser() {

    }

    public static class Alias {

        public String name;

        public String toName;

        public int weight;
    }

    public static class Config {

        public List<Alias> aliases;

        public List<Family> families;

        Config() {
            families = new ArrayList<Family>();
            aliases = new ArrayList<Alias>();
        }

    }

    public static class Family {

        public List<Font> fonts;

        public String lang;

        public String name;

        public String variant;

        public Family(String name, List<Font> fonts, String lang, String variant) {
            this.name = name;
            this.fonts = fonts;
            this.lang = lang;
            this.variant = variant;
        }

    }

    public static class Font {

        public String fontName;

        public boolean isItalic;

        public int weight;

        Font(String fontName, int weight, boolean isItalic) {
            this.fontName = fontName;
            this.weight = weight;
            this.isItalic = isItalic;
        }

    }

    public static class SystemFont {

        public String name;

        public String path;

        public SystemFont(String name, String path) {
            this.name = name;
            this.path = path;
        }

    }
}

---

Feel free to use the above class in your project. For example, you could give your users a selection of font families and set the typeface based on their preference.

A small incomplete example:

final List<FontListParser.SystemFont> fonts = FontListParser.safelyGetSystemFonts();
String[] items = new String[fonts.size()];
for (int i = 0; i < fonts.size(); i++) {
    items[i] = fonts.get(i).name;
}

new AlertDialog.Builder(this).setSingleChoiceItems(items, -1, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
        FontListParser.SystemFont selectedFont = fonts.get(which);
        // TODO: do something with the font
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), selectedFont.path, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }
}).show();

Solution 5

Android doesn't allow you to set custom fonts from the XML layout. Instead, you must bundle the specific font file in your app's assets folder, and set it programmatically. Something like:

TextView textView = (TextView) findViewById(<your TextView ID>);
Typeface typeFace = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "<file name>");
textView.setTypeface(typeFace);

Note that you can only run this code after setContentView() has been called. Also, only some fonts are supported by Android, and should be in a .ttf (TrueType) or .otf (OpenType) format. Even then, some fonts may not work.

This is a font that definitely works on Android, and you can use this to confirm that your code is working in case your font file isn't supported by Android.

Android O Update: This is now possible with XML in Android O, based on Roger's comment.

View more solutions

Comments

[Sam Lu]

Don't forget this: android:fontFamily="sans-serif-thin" // roboto thin

[tbruyelle]

I saw a variant called "black small caps" in the roboto specimen book, but I don't manage to use it. Using android:fontFamily="sans-serif-black-small-caps" doesnt work. Does someone know?

[Monty]

i am not able to find any of these font-family what have you typed here .i am not able to find "sans-serif" together.

[Christopher Perry]

This is a nice list. Does anyone have a link to where this information comes from? It would be nice if Google had this in their documentation in an easy to find place, say for the documentation of android:fontFamily on TextView.

[Christian García]

Any clue of what's the source of this answer's information? I'd like to read further about it

[Adam Mackler]

This would be great information for, oh I don't know, how about the TextView API Javadocs. Just sayin'. Apparently this is the only official reference.

[Rad Haring]

Is it accurate to say that fontFamily supercedes typeface? Are we now no longer able to use serif or monospace? I don't think typeface is formally deprecated, just ignored when fontFamily is also present.

[Rad Haring]

I don't think it is the same thing, but it does appear that we can't use both. It seems that there are now no less than three different attributes mapped to setTypeface(). Namely fontFamily, typeface and textStyle. But I can't for the life of me figure out how these are precisely combined to resolve a concrete Typeface instance. Has anyone figured this out? Google's documentation is less than helpful...

[Charles Madere]

While this does work, please note that this can create a memory leak. It can be fixed using this answer.

[Simon]

I have updated this answer with details of where the source of this information comes from and how to get a definitive list of android:fontFamily values, even vendor ones, from your devices. Its just waiting on peer review.

[Newtonx]

The definitive list of fonts can be found in system_fonts.xml as explained here

[Sandra]

Just a quick quesrtion, if I use android:fontFamily in versions prior to (< 4.1) Jelly Bean, will it crash my app or just be ignored?

[Jakob Eriksson]

@Sandra it will be ignored, so it's safe to use

[android developer]

Where can I find in the documentation about the available font-families ?

[Sagar Devanga]

@ScootrNova i get this error when i use your solution. Error : Font asset not found gothic.ttf

[android developer]

"sans-serif" (roboto regular) is the default, right?

[Ricardo]

How can I use roboto condensed light? Thanks

[android developer]

@Ricardo Best way is to look at the source: android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/… and android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/master/d‌​ata/… , which means you want to use "sans-serif-condensed-light"

[android developer]

Do you know perhaps which version of Android added which font?

[Jared Rummler]

@androiddeveloper I don't. You could probably find out by viewing the changes here: github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/blob/…

[AZ_]

Where to declare them?

[android developer]

@AZ_ Just like many resource files, you can put it in any XML file you wish, inside the "res/values/" folder . For example, put it in "res/values/fonts.xml" . And, to use it, do simply like this for example : android:fontFamily="string/fontFamily__roboto_regular"

[AZ_]

Thanks, I am using this github.com/norbsoft/android-typeface-helper and it's really helpful

[android developer]

ok, the library is probably for doing it programmatically. here it's for XML

[Jelle Fresen]

What if you use sans-serif-thin on Android 4.1? Will it default to sans-serif-light, sans-serif, or DroidSans?

[gor]

since 5.0 you can, post an example in separate answer

[Pritish Joshi]

How to apply this to whole app? Right now in example you are applying it only on on textview

[Milon]

To use Roboto API level 16 is required otherwise, you will get an error.

[Demigod]

So I guess the only font I can't get (without using the RobotoTextView library) is condensed light? right?

[KasparTr]

How about Noto family? I cant find a way to make my app use Noto as default font family

[Samuel]

@JaredRummler, forgive my ignorance. Why/What is weight==400 ?

[Jared Rummler]

@Samuel I haven't looked at this code in a while, but 400 font weight is used for "normal" or "regular" fonts. Example, Roboto-Regular has a weight of 400.

[scorpiodawg]

List is also available here: androidxref.com/6.0.1_r10/xref/frameworks/base/data/fonts/…

[Morozov]

yep, but for example i want to use it functionanl, but didn t want to implement all library;)

[Jeppe Leth]

You can check out this project, for checking font compatibility on TextViews and in WebViews on different platform versions github.com/JeppeLeth/android_font_compat_tester

[Roger Huang]

"Android doesn't allow you to set custom fonts from the XML layout." This has been changed in Android O, which allows you to create customized font family and apply them in XML: developer.android.com/preview/features/working-with-fonts.ht‌​ml

[Tash Pemhiwa]

NB: This currently only works in Android Studio 3.0 Preview. It did not work for me on Android Studio 2.3.3. Hope that saves someone some time!

[Akshatha S R]

sans-serif-medium is not available in my case

[Paradox]

How could you get the font from within a fragment since you can't just do getResources()? EDIT: This line at the end of your answer worked for me: Typeface typeface = ResourcesCompat.getFont(context, R.font.myfont);

[Dominikus K.]

Sadly this still does not work with IntelliJ (though working like a charm on Android Studio 3.0+).

[Damn Vegetables]

Does this require root or something? I ran this code on the Android emulator (version 8.1), and when I called getSystemFonts(), I got an exception org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserException: END_TAG expected (position:START_TAG (empty) <axis tag='wdth' stylevalue='100.0'>@219:51 in java.io.InputStreamReader@f001fb3)

[Leonid Ustenko]

Somehow it made font look corrupted in my case, comparing to Caligtraphy. Also fontWeight doesn't do anything

[Manohar]

@LeoDroidcoder it does work , make sure you used both android:fontWeight and app:fontWeight

[Leonid Ustenko]

I checked several times. There is no effect.

[jungledev]

Note that xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" must be included in your root element declaration to ensure it doesn't throw the error "Namespace 'app' not bound"

[jungledev]

Yes, but user Redman's answer above is still very much so a necessary part of the solution.

[Anton Kizema]

Please, modify your answer - add android:fontFamily="sans-serif-bold" which corresponds to Roboto-bold. Thanks

[Tsung Wu]

Well this is not working for CJK :( Any other ideas?

[coolDude]

Can anyone explain how each TTF file was mapped as the default for each font family? For example, for sans-serif, why is it that Roboto-Regular was the TTF file used? I see many files listed in this font family. Why was this particular one chosen over the others?

[coolDude]

Okay, I see that you used a weight of 400 as a threshold to determine the default font. Why 400 though?

[Senthilvel S]

This library isu used to change font of all views in entire application. This is not applicable for adapter views such as list view. For that we need to add code in each adapter specifically

[Akanshi Srivastava]

And also, android:fontFamily="casual"

[Vadim Kotov]

Better use ResourcesCompat.getFont method

[EvOlaNdLuPiZ]

very nice, thank you for this. idk why others have more stars but yours is confirmed to work with material design text view, you must use app:fontFamily= however, everything else is the same.

[superuser]

there's a link for a full view of Roboto: fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto

[Hilal]

YOu saved my life, I had just created a folder named font and it did not work. Anyway I used your way and it worked.Thanks

[mcy]

This answer should be way more top in 2020

[Androidcoder]

Right-click main, select 'New', select 'Android Resource File'. In popup window type 'font' for name, select 'Font' from drop-down 'Resource Type' list. Click 'OK'.

[Sharan]

@Manohar How to use it in conjunction with a Textvo